The Marginalisation of The Languages Of Papua

Christ Fautngil

Languages in Papua consist of Papuan Languages and Austronesian languages. The Papuan languages are generally found in the interior and in the southern part of Papua, making up about 185 languages. The Austronesian languages are faund in the coastal  areas  and the islands in the northern part of Papua which make up about 51 languages. It is estimated that that 14 languages  have not been classified.

The number of languages in Papua, according to the Summer Institute of Languistics (2000: 1), there are 265 languages. According to the Jakarta Languages Center (Pusat Bahasa Jakarta), there are 272 languages (2007-2010). The difference in number is due to the differences in methodology, in time of data acquisition, and the languages naming.

The number of language speakers in Papua varies a lot. There are only 3 languages having speakers above 100 thousends or 1.13%, i.e. Dani-Western, Dani-Grand Valley, and Ekari (Mee).There are abut 20 languages having speakers from 10,000 down to 99,000 or 6.41%. Languages with speakers between 1000 and 999 or 34.mm33% are about 90 in number. There are about 145 languages or 54.71% languages with speakers from 999 down to 2. This available data gives us a picture that there are only 3 ‘safe’ languages, languages which will soon be in ablivion are about 140 in number and 50 years later, about 110 languages will be in ablivion too.

There are a number of factors causing a language to perish. There are internal, external factors, and the spakers factor. The internal factors include inadicuacy of vocabulary in the language whichmay represent outside concepts, the complexity of the language in terms of sounds, forms, words, and sentences. The factors related to the speakers are education level of the spakers and the unfavorable attitudes towards their own languages. For example, there are those who fell embarrassed to speak their languages and there are those who consider the language as an obstacle of development.